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Books: The Battle for British Islam: Reclaiming Muslim Identity from Extremism by Sara Khan with Tony McMahon

Sara Khan has spent years battling the excesses of British Islamism

Review by Justin Marozzi

September 11 2016, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

Dress code: a London Muslim, 2013ALAMY

It is a measure of the success of the vigorous campaign waged by some British Islamists against the government’s counter-extremism policy that I began this book with a sense of foreboding. It is a tribute to Sara Khan that by its conclusion the dread was directed entirely at the noisy proponents of Islamophobia, a cottage industry of extremists who do a great disservice to British Muslims and our wider society.

Thought the EU referendum campaign was marked by lies and disinformation? Not a patch on certain British Islamists’ relentless battle against the government’s counterterrorism Prevent programme. As Khan demonstrates with great acuity, they have sought to discredit it at every level within the Muslim and non-Muslim communities and, to a large degree, have succeeded, using…